MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed the ratification of a nuclear arms-cut treaty with the United States, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s efforts to reset ties with Moscow.
The New START pact limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and also re-establishes a system for monitoring that ended in December 2009 with the expiration of a previous arms deal.
In a statement to his security council Friday, Medvedev said the pact will take effect when the ratification documents are exchanged by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The pact was approved by the U.S. Senate last month after Obama pressed strongly for its passage, telephoning a handful of hesitant Republicans to lock in their votes.
Democrats sought to appease some Republican senators by allowing them to raise concerns about the treaty in an accompanying resolution. The resolution didn’t affect the text of the treaty, but Russian legislators felt compelled to offer their own interpretation of the pact’s provisions in their ratification bill and accompanying statements.
The Associated Press
